Global Witness Skoll Awardee Profile

Organization Overview

Key Info

Social Entrepreneur Simon Taylor, Charmian Gooch, Patrick Alley

Year Awarded 2014

Issue Area Addressed Economic Opportunity, Peace and Human Rights, Sustainable Markets

Sub Issue Area Addressed Arresting Deforestation, Clean Energy, Clean Water, Human Rights, Livelihoods, Responsible Supply Chains, Standards

Countries Served United Kingdom

Website http://www.globalwitness.org

Twitter handle Global_Witness

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GlobalWitness

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/GlobalWitness

About the Organization Global Witness investigates and campaigns to prevent resource-related conflict and corruption, and associated environmental and human rights abuses. From investigations to high-level lobby meetings, they aim to engage on every level where they might make a difference and bring about change.

For two decades they have been campaigning for full transparency in the mining, logging, and oil and gas sectors, so that citizens who own those resources can benefit fairly from them, now and in future.

Global Witness believes that the only way to protect peoples’ rights to land, livelihoods, and a fair share of their national wealth is to demand total transparency in the resources sector, sustainable and equitable resources management, and stopping the international financial system from propping up resource-related corruption.

The Global Witness team draws on a wide range of skills, from undercover investigations and painstaking financial research, to information-gathering on the ground and close cooperation with partners and activists all over the world.

Impact

In one of the biggest corporate bribery trials in history, Royal Dutch Shell and Italian oil giant Eni have been ordered to stand trial in Milan on charges of aggravated international corruption for their role in a 2011 $1.1B deal for Nigerian oil block OPL 245. The trial is as a result of the work Global Witness had done over the past few years. Global Witness’ advocacy in close cooperation with local groups led to the arrests of the murderers of Honduran activist Berta Cáceres, who was shot in her home in March 2016. Officials linked to the Agua Zarca Dam—a project Berta had strongly opposed and campaigned against—were later charged and arrested for violating consultation rights for affected communities, and the main backers of the project, the Dutch and Finnish Development Banks, suspended their involvement. Global Witness has been working on responsible mineral sourcing for over a decade and, after years of campaigning, the EU Responsible Sourcing Regulation came into force in June 2017. Certain EU companies will, for the first time, be legally required to take responsibility for their mineral supply chains and to take steps to prevent their trade being linked to conflict or human rights abuses. The EU agreed to new rules to reveal the true owners of EU companies and trusts through the 5th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which came into force in June 2018. The changes mean public disclosure of company ownership will become law in EU states. These new rules follow years of campaigning from Global Witness and its anti-corruption partners in Europe.

Path to Scale Build a Movement, Policy Advocacy

Evidence from investigations and cases influences regulatory frameworks and legislation. Governments, industry leaders, and other actors are held accountable; human rights are respected and ordinary citizens benefit from natural resources.

Social Entrepreneur

Simon Taylor is co-founder and director of Global Witness. He worked on Global Witness’s first investigation into how the illegal timber trade between Cambodia and Thailand was funding the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, following which, he launched and led Global Witness’s oil and corruption campaign in December 1999, after investigating companies and elite groups involved in this sector. This began the global call for transparency around payments by companies to governments for natural resources, leading to Global Witness’s conception and co-launch of the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) campaign, which now consists of civil society organizations in over 40 countries worldwide. Simon has detailed expertise of natural resource-related corruption and extensive advocacy experience, and continues to be at the forefront of the push for a global standard of revenue transparency legislation, as well as being actively involved in Global Witness’s work to expose corruption in the sector. In addition, he is involved in the strategic leadership of the organization.

Charmian Gooch is co-founder and director of Global Witness. She jointly led Global Witness’s first campaign, exposing the trade in timber between the Khmer Rouge and Thai logging companies and their political and military backers. Subsequently, Charmian developed and launched Global Witness’s campaign to combat ‘blood diamonds;’ Global Witness was nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize as a result of this work. In 2014 Charmian was awarded the TED Prize.

Patrick Alley is co-founder and director of Global Witness. Since posing as a timber buyer in Global Witness’s first investigation into the Thai-Khmer Rouge timber trade in 1995, Patrick has taken part in over fifty field investigations in South East Asia, Africa, and Europe and in subsequent advocacy activities. Patrick has focused on Global Witness’s campaigns on conflict resources, notably former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s ‘arms for timber’ trade, the minerals trade in Eastern DRC and more recently the Central African Republic, as well as providing strategic direction for Global Witness’ work on forest issues, especially challenging industrial scale logging and land grabbing in the tropics.

The three founders met while working at the environmental non-profit, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). All individually interested in Cambodia – then coming out of 30 years of civil war – they spent many hours in London’s pubs discussing the political and military developments in-country. They learned from the press that the infamous Khmer Rouge guerrilla organization – then boycotting Cambodia’s UN brokered elections – was trading rainforest timber with Thailand. Given that the rainforests were being cut to fund a war, Patrick, Simon and Charmian asked themselves: “is that an environmental issue, or a human rights issue?” Shortly followed by: “Why doesn’t someone do something about that?” Then after a short pause – “Why don’t we?” And thus Global Witness became the first organization working on the nexus of natural resources and human rights issues.

Equilibrium Overview

Current Equilibrium

In the current equilibrium, the rich and corrupt are not held accountable for abuses of power due to lack of transparency and broken enforcement systems. As a result of veiled financial flows, the citizens of the developing world reap limited financial benefits from the natural wealth of their countries. Instead, profits line the pockets of corrupt industries and individuals. Exploitation by multinational companies often contributes to a loss of sovereign control over natural resources (including forests and land), enables crippling levels of corruption, gives rise to human rights abuses, triggers and sustains conflict, and supports some of the of the world’s most brutal regimes.

New Equilibrium

In the new equilibrium, the global system of financial flows is fundamentally transparent. Financial transparency uncovers illicit funds that are fueling conflict and corruption, making it difficult to continue these activities. Corrupt government and business leaders and warlords are no longer protected from the public eye – effective transparency systems cut off illicit financial flows from legally unaccountable companies and regions. As a result of systemic transparency, corruption at the nexus of natural resources and human rights abuses are stamped out. Ordinary citizens benefit from their country’s resources and environments are protected.

Innovation

Global Witness conducts investigations to identify, unveil, and demand accountability for problems that exist at the intersection of conflict, corruption, and natural resource exploitation. Global Witness’s campaign model focuses on specific global issues illustrated by country and/or case studies in certain geographies. This consists of: Investigating: Global Witness deploys undercover investigators to unearth facts behind the root causes of these problems. Evidence gathering techniques include interviews, secret filming, photography, rigorous financial research and on-the-ground monitoring.Exposing. Global Witness uses strategic media and public campaigning based on reports, briefings, primary research and investigations to set the stage for effective advocacy with high-level decision makers in governments and international policy-setting bodies.Opening space: Global Witness often opens up space for local civil society organizations to speak out safely.Designing: Global Witness drafts solutions for legal mechanisms, structures and strategies to promote environmental and social benefit from the natural resource trade for affected communities.Influencing: Global Witness engages political and corporate decision makers to promote legal and ethical behavior. Global Witness puts its evidence based reports and investigation findings in front of decision-makers across national and international government and justice systems, leveraging its evidence to demand that corrupt leaders and criminals be held accountable for human rights violations. This element of their work requires strong partnerships with like-minded organizations and national and international coalitions. Organizations tackling environmental abuse are often focused on a specific issue, such as forest destruction. Few make the direct connection between human rights abuses, corruption and environmental destruction. Global Witness’s unique role is to build the picture of corruption at highest levels, expose the ‘shadow system’ that facilitates corruption, highlighting the lack of respect for land rights and reporting on killings of people defending the environment and their land, and uncovering the destruction of forests caused by the extraction of fossil fuels. By undertaking extensive investigative research they help build undeniable evidence that is presented by Global Witness and its partners, thereby acting as a catalyst for the global movement and forcing change. Global Witness’s innovation is rooted in: Strategic unveiling of linkages between natural resources, conflict and corruption: One of Global Witness’s key contributions has been to prove that natural resources such as oil, minerals and timber are not only a critical source of revenue in many of the world’s poorest countries, but also a major incentive and catalyst for state looting and corruption which entrenches oppressive regimes, erodes democratic space and increases human rights and environmental abuses and conflict. They have been able to intervene and make a positive difference in tackling this problem at the national, regional and international levels. They do this by gathering data and evidence, utilizing name and shame tactics to prevent corrupt vested interests, and working behind the scenes with key policymakers to drive systemic global change. They push and support governments to create and enforce global standards through establishing and implementing legislation and regulation. They pressure companies and the financial system to adopt global transparency standards and improve practices. And they work to ensure that governments and companies are held accountable for their policies and investments in order to create an environment that fosters development and civil society engagement. Global Witness is uniquely placed to find the facts, expose the story, and change the system. Strong reputation of fact-based credibility: Global Witness has a unique Theory of Change that involves deep investigation, hard-hitting exposure and long-term strategic advocacy. This makes the organization notable in its field, giving it a global reputation as a “credible investigator”, following the money and resisting sensationalism to maintain an evidenced, fact-based approach that makes it very difficult for perpetrators to deny or defend their actions. Gemma Mortensen of Change.org (formerly of Crisis Action and recipient of the 2013 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship) wrote, “Many trust and fear that they are completely accurate in their investigations.” This credibility enables Global Witness to have an open door to policymakers, other decision makers, and international bodies like the World Bank and the UN, as well as the companies and individuals targeted in their investigations. Global Witness has formed a strong reputation because their publications are known for meticulous attention to detail, with reports typically “months and sometimes years in the making.”

Ambition for Change

Financial transparency uncovers the flow of funds fueling conflict and corruption, making it difficult to continue these activities.